Green Thumbs

I'm not a gardener. I once planted some flower seeds in a cup and placed them, ever so carefully, on my bedroom window sill so I could look at them each day and watch them grow. A few months had went by when I decided to step back up to the window sill and peer into the little glass. I couldn't believe it! No plant! Not even a sign that a seed had ever been placed in the dirt! It was in that moment that I realized how needy one little seed can be. What? It expected me to water it?! It expected me to open up the blinds and let some sunshine in?! Talk about high maintenance. Instead, I chiseled the dry, cracked dirt out of the cup, flung it out in the yard and gave up on gardening forever. . .  Until now.

This winter I bought a garden kit which was comprised of lettuce, sweet peppers, cucumber and tomato seeds. I took it home from the store and was suddenly craving a salad, but that's a different story! I was anxious to plant my new seeds. . . So I did! I placed 15 of each seed in one small disposable pot thinking I would be lucky if even 1 seed would grow. Well, it turns out they all grew! And it was only March! My garden grew, and grew. You might as well just start calling me Mary! (Mary, Mary quite contrary. . .)

What a miracle! I planted the seeds, placed them in the window sill and never watered them and they still grew! (Thanks mom)

The garden outgrew the house and the time came for them to go out into the world. The following are pictures of the building of the planter boxes, placing of the dirt, planting of the plants and burning of the skin...

The true gardener and planter box builder. My dad!

No need to remove the weeds. Just put the dirt on top 

and pick the weeds when they grow through!

Shoveling dirt is for the birds! 

So is unshoveling! 

Little plants, home at last!

After all of that, it appears as though half of them croaked instantly upon hitting the ground. I have hope that they will snap out of it though! 

And before you start thinking that I actually have enough ambition to shovel 2 truckloads of dirt, here's this little beauty! 

(Thanks for the dirt scooping Jed)

If all of these plants grow, they should produce roughly 6 zillion tomatoes, 33 sweet peppers, 27 cucumbers, 4 large pumpkins, 12 watermelons, and 15 heads of lettuce! 

Happy eating!

-Mandie

I Started As A Baby

Contrary to popular belief, I was born. Not hatched! I'm guessing that because of this fact, you and I have something in common!

Today being "Flashback Friday" I would just like to share a few blurry images (because I'm not scanning them, I'm taking a picture of a picture...sorry) of my early days:

I was a baby in my early days. Here I am giving my toy baby the same look I get today, as a grown up person, from real babies and kids. They tend to just stare at me, unable to take their eyes off of me out of fear that I might pounce or something!

 This is where I gained my skill and became a true athlete. 

And also where I started my love for frosting. 

I have been taking classes so I can be certified as a Teacher's Aide. I have learned some interesting things in these classes, one of them being that children gain their self esteem in the first few years of their lives! That seemed crazy to me, but as I look back through pictures and see how happy I am in them, I can see how it is important for kids to start their lives out knowing that they are of worth. So, thanks to my mom and dad and my grandmas and grandpas for not just laying me on the floor and not talking to me. I'm sure you're the ones to blame for me feeling comfortable sticking things to my face, dancing behind Andrea's back while she plays  The Twilight Theme, practicing each day as a child so I could out burp anyone who might cross my path, and whatever else might come to my mind and out through my actions. You never criticized me and made me believe that I could do anything! 

Yes, of course I started out, literally as a baby, but I also started a lot of my habits and quirky ways as a baby. I tend to still act the same way today!

-Mandie

Pepper Minty Fresh

I have decided that Thursday should be "Product Review" day. So, here it goes!

I combed my hair, brushed my teeth, put on clothes that covered all the parts of me that should be covered and took all other precautionary measures to be sure that I would not make the next "People of Wal-Mart" list!
There I stood, about to make one of the most important decisions I would make that day: Which mouth wash would escape the bonds of the Wal-Mart and come dance upon my taste buds?

There were so many choices! Crest, Listerine, Equate... Yellow, blue, purple, green. Of course green is the color of choice, right? But then, there it was in large bold letters "ANTICAVITY" and that was all I needed to feast my eyes upon. I snatched my new, HUGE bottle of purple, Equate mouthwash and rushed right home to use it.. Fresh breath is my fave!

And now, here is my product review:

The bottle really is quite large, and you get a lot of "swish" for a great price.
The transparent, purple hue is really pleasing to the eye. Different from the minty green that you can find in pretty much every other person's cabinet besides mine.
But, the really important factor is the taste. Pay close attention here.
I'm sure the taste is really great and refreshing, but as soon as I poured a rather generous amount into my unsuspecting mouth it was as if Johnny Cash's Burning Ring of Fire was surrounding my teeth! What was I supposed to do? I'm pretty sure it even burned a few of my brain cells because my first instinct was to swallow! Don't do that! By all means, if you find yourself in this situation, spit!

I would definitely recommend this product if you enjoy holding volcanic lava in your mouth! They don't call it PEPPER mint for nothing! Otherwise, this is a case where you can go ahead and do what everybody else is doing, and buy the green Listerine!

- Mandie

Leaving Marks

For as long as I can remember (which some days is not a long ways back) I have been leaving marks in places just to make sure people would know that I was there. Maybe it's because they weren't there at the same time I was and I want them to know that I was thinking about them, or maybe it's for the completely selfish reason that I want them to think of me, even when I'm not there. Either way, my grandma's bacon grease left to cool on the stove, Julie's unopened bags of frozen french fries, my mom's notepad by the phone and even undisturbed snow on a frozen mountain lake have all been forced to portray the message "Mandie Was Here" countless times over the years. 

As I think a little more about it, I'm sure that we are all leaving marks of our presence wherever we go. Whether we are with someone or even a group of people, we leave an impression on them, just like I left an impression in the snow or on the grease. We have either made them feel good or made them feel bad. I'm hoping that as I go about doing whatever it is I do, I'm leaving marks that bring smiles to the faces of the people who see them. Maybe someday I won't even have to write "Mandie Was Here" they will just know that I was there by the way I left the place, and hopefully that's a good thing! 

That's why I have chosen "Mandie Was Here" for the name of this blog. If this goes anything like my daily journal entries, you probably won't be hearing from me very often!

- Mandie